The Kenai River Brown Bears lost 6-3 to the Fairbanks Ice Dogs on Friday at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks.
The Brown Bears will close their season Saturday with a 7:30 p.m. contest against the Ice Dogs.
Though Kenai River (21-29-4-4) is eliminated from the playoffs and locked into seventh place in the Midwest Division, the final game of the season will have playoff implications.
Both the Ice Dogs (36-16-3-3) and the Anchorage Wolverines (36-16-2-4) are tied for second in the Midwest Division. Fairbanks owns the season series over Anchorage and can clinch home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs with a victory over the Brown Bears.
Anchorage plays the Chippewa (Wisconsin) Steel at the Sullivan Arena on Saturday. The Wolverines need to get at least a point and hope for help from the Brown Bears.
The Steel clinched the fourth and final playoff spot out of the Midwest by losing 6-5 in a shootout Friday to the Wolverines. With one game remaining for each squad, Chippewa has a two-point lead over the Wilderness and the edge in the season series.
Friday, due to special teams, the Bears lost their sixth straight, with Fairbanks finishing 4 for 6 on the power play and Kenai River going 0 for 4.
“The bottom line is special teams lost us a hockey game,” Kenai River head coach Taylor Shaw said. “Our penalties were not even good penalties.
“So it was lack of execution. That’s a tough pill, not getting necessarily beat by great plays, but lack of execution.”
The Ice Dogs led 2-0 after the first period on power-play goals by Kyle Rohrer and Ian Norkevicus.
After Luc Plante put the Ice Dogs up 3-0, Michael Fiedorczuk, assisted by Andy Larson and Andrew Politoski, got the Bears on the board with 13:41 left in the second period.
Fiedorczuk has scored three goals in the past two games, and eight on the season.
“He’s finding ways to capitalize, so it’s awesome,” Shaw said.
After a power-play goal by Cam VanSickle, William Esterbooks made it 4-2 headed to the third period on assists from Brady Engelkes and Luke Lizak.
Fairbanks went up 5-2 in the third period on a power-play strike from Plante, then Rohrer made it 6-2 less than a minute later with 11:01 left in the game.
Engelkes scored late for Kenai River, assisted by Riley Mullen and Carter McCormick.
Mason McElroy made 31 saves for the Ice Dogs, while Mitchell Mccusker stopped 26 for the Bears.
Friday
Ice Dogs 6, Brown Bears 3
Ken 0 2 1 —3
Fai 2 2 2 —6
First period — 1. Fairbanks, Rohrer (Coyle, Carlson), pp, 6:33; 2. Fairbanks, Norkevicus (Leonard, Timm), pp, 19:24. Penalties — Kenai River 2 for 4:00; Fairbanks 1 for 2:00.
Second period — 3. Fairbanks, Plante (VanSickle, Coyle), 1:44. 4. Kenai River, Fiedorczuk (Larson, Politoski), 6:19. 5. Fairbanks, VanSickle (Carlson, Rohrer), pp, 11:00. 6. Kenai River, Esterbrooks (Engelkes, Lizak), 19:23. Penalties — Kenai River 1 for 2:00; Fairbanks 3 for 6:00.
Third period — 7. Fairbanks, Plante (Timm, Norkevicus), pp, 8:31; 8. Fairbanks, Rohrer (Gulenchyn, Fox), 8:59. 9. Kenai River, Engelkes (Mullen, McCormick), 14:39. Penalties — Kenai River 4 for 16:00.
Shots on goal — Kenai River 15-13-6—34; Fairbanks 13-11-8—32.
Goalies — Kenai River, Mccusker (32 shots, 26 saves); Fairbanks, McElroy (34 shots, 31 saves).
Power plays — Kenai River 0 for 4; Fairbanks 4 for 6.
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